Mary Page offers a variety of resources inviting study, reflection and
meditation. We also list important Marian dates for each month of the
year. Please see Marian Commemoration Days for the month of
November.

Rosary Markings

Rosary
Markings is an answer to John Paul II's proclamation of "The Year of the
Rosary" (2002-2003). Rosary Markings will explore various facets of the
rosary all through this anniversary year. It will be updated
frequently.

See our recent addition from November 4.
Previous Reflections are listed on our Rosary
Index. Please note that many of these documents are available in
Spanish as well as English.

The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute invites you to
visit The Mother of God: Art Celebrates Mary, thirty-eight paintings and
sculptures from the permanent collection of The Vatican Museums, spanning
seventeen centuries of Christian art and reflecting cultures worldwide.

September 4 - November 10, 2003

Roesch and Marian Library Galleries in Roesch Library on the University of
Dayton Campus.Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday and
Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Seminars related to the exhibit will be held in the LTC
on Thursday nights through November 20.For details on these lectures, click
into http://www.udayton.edu/mary/gallery/vatseminars.html.
Exhibits of Rosaries of the World and of Creches
will also be on display during this time.See also the article in the October 23 issue of U.D.'s Campus
Report.

Sr. Marcia Vinje, former IMRI student, wrote to Fr. Roten on 10/15/2003 to
tell us that her community "celebrated the 50th anniversary of our Schoenstatt
Shrine here in Madison [Wisconsin] in June [2003] and were grateful for Bishop
Bullock's tribute to the Schoenstatt Movement as a 'sane spirituality' ... Now
we have a new bishop, Robert Morlino, who will be coming to the shrine on
October 18 (Schoenstatt's Founding Day) to close the Year of the Rosary ... We
have a date set for the ordination of our diaconate candidates on July 23, 2004,
so that puts all our formation a little more in focus. All of the
institute members continue to grow in their spiritual formation. I suppose
you feel this kind of humble pride in your IMRI students, too, when you can
witness how the Lord is leading them on their spiritual journey. Please
give my greetings to Fr. Thompson and Fr. Buby, and to anyone else there who may
remember me."

N.B. Sr. Marcia also sent the CNS article, "Devotion to Mary," quoted below.

We've added a section to our Research and
Publications section showing selected personal comments from our readers about
the Virgin Mary. Click here to see
comments received within the past month. From this page, feel free to
submit your own personal thoughts on Mary.

We also encourage our readers to submit their
opinions on various styles of Marian Art through an on-line art
survey.

Keynote Speaker: Fr. John Corapi, Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy
Trinity (SOLT)

To register, call Josie at (310) 830-9131 or email at: BlueArmyLosAngel@aol.com.
Please register early as seats will fill-in real fast. We received many
inquiries from groups in different cities and various states.

Click this link for a list of all of the current Marian Events by geographical
position.

You are invited to help us pray for our Prayer Corner
intentions. Please take a look! This site has been updated and
enhanced and now allows users to directly submit prayer requests or to volunteer
as a prayer partner for these intentions!

Last year, as he began the 25th year of his papacy, Pope John Paul II
publicly entrusted himself and the church to the Virgin Mary, again displaying a
lifelong personal devotion that he sees as fundamental to his ministry.

"I place everything into her hands so that with the love of a mother she will
present it to her son," the pope said in St. Peter's Square in October 2002.
"I also entrust my future to her."

He underscored the message by releasing an apostolic letter on the Marian
devotion of the rosary, calling it his "favorite prayer." The letter
proposed the addition of new contemplative themes to the centuries-old prayer
and announced a "year of the rosary" to help Catholics rediscover its spiritual
richness.

Throughout his pontificate, the pope has shown a devotion to Mary that
seamlessly integrates popular piety, theological scholarship, and the expression
of a personal, human relationship with the mother of God.

As a boy in Poland, the future pontiff--whose mother died when he was
nine--prayed daily to Mary in his parish church and first donned the brown
scapular, which he wears even today under his white pontifical robes. As a
teenager he dedicated his life to her during a visit to the Marian shrine at
Jasna Gora in Czestochowa.

As a theologian, he wrote about Mary as a mother figure who could unite
people. As a bishop and later as pope, he chose as his motto "Totus Tuus,"
Latin for "completely yours," and addressed it to Mary.

When elected pope in 1978, he spoke of Mary in his first speech, saying he
had accepted the office of the papacy in a spirit of humility to Christ and in
"complete trust in his most holy mother, the Madonna."

...

Marianist Father, Johann G. Roten, director of the International Marian
Research Institute at the University of Dayton, Ohio, said the pope's personal
devotion to Mary also has helped spark a church-wide grassroots revival of
classical devotions that feel out of favor in the immediate aftermath of the
Second Vatican Council.

"He somehow lends his authority as a pope, but also as a human being, to the
value and importance of those devotional practices," said Father Roten, who said
he receives hundreds of e-mails a month expressing interest in traditional
Marian devotions.

"We see this pope who has written books, has been a teacher of philosophy and
theology, and at the same time has a very simple, straightforward, almost
youthful piety," he said.

Father Roten said the pope's 1987 encyclical, Redemptoris Mater (Mother of
the Redeemer), has had "quite an impact" on Marian theological studies,
particularly because of its emphasis on the human and maternal presence of Mary
in the church.

IN OCTOBER THE YEAR OF THE ROSARY COMES TO A CLOSE

VATICAN CITY, OCT 29, 2003 (VIS)

Due to inclement weather, today's general
audience was moved from St. Peter's Square to St. Peter's Basilica and the
Paul VI Hall. The Pope first greeted pilgrims in the basilica and then
proceeded to the Paul VI Hall. John Paul II affirmed that "with the month of October,
the Year of the Rosary," which he proclaimed from October 2002 to October of 2003,
"comes to a close."

"I am so grateful to God for this time of grace in which the entire Church
community has been able to explore the value and importance of the rosary,
which is a Christological and contemplative prayer."

After recalling the "motto" of the Year of the Rosary, "Contemplating the
face of Christ with Mary," John Paul II said that these words, taken from
the apostolic letter "'Rosarium Virginis Mariae,' concisely express the
authentic meaning of this prayer, both simple and profound. At the same
time, they highlight the continuity between the proposal of the rosary and
the path indicated to the People of God in my previous apostolic letter
'Novo millennio ineunte'."

"If at the beginning of the third millennium, Christians are called to
grow as 'contemplators of Christ's face', and the ecclesiastical communities
are called to become 'genuine schools of prayer', the rosary is the
privileged 'Marian way,' in order to reach this dual objective."

The Pope recalled that during this year he wanted "to entrust two great
prayer intentions to the People of God: peace and the family. The 21st
century, born under the sign of the great jubilee year reconciliation, has
unfortunately inherited from the past numerous and enduring acts of war and
violence. The disconcerting attacks of September 11, 2001 and the events
that followed in the world have peaked tensions on a global level. Despite
these alarming situations, praying the rosary is not a retreat inside
oneself, but a decision of responsible faith, a conscious choice of faith:
contemplating the face of Christ, our peace and our reconciliation, we want
to implore God for the gift of peace through the intercession of Mary, Most
Holy. We ask her for the necessary strength to be builders of peace,
beginning in our daily family life."

Referring to the family, the Holy Father emphasized that it should be "the
first environment in which Christ's peace is embraced, cultivated and
fostered. In our time, however, without prayer it becomes more and more
difficult for the family to realize this vocation. This is why it would be
very useful to take up again the beautiful custom of praying the rosary at
home, as it was done in past generations. 'The family that prays together, stays together'."

"I entrust these intentions," he concluded, "to the Virgin, so that she
may protect the family and obtain peace for each person and the world. I
hope that all believers, accompanied by Our Lady, set out decisively on the
path of sanctity, their gaze fixed on Jesus while they meditate, with the
rosary, the mysteries of salvation. This will be the most precious fruit of
this year dedicated to the rosary."

AG/YEAR OF THE ROSARY/... VIS 031029 (520)

From
Zenit

Year of the Rosary Ends on a Note of Holiness

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 2, 2003 (Zenit.org)

John Paul II brought to a close the Year of the Rosary, and stressed the
importance of the Marian prayer as a means to attain holiness.

The Pope explained this on Saturday, the solemnity of All Saints, when he
prayed the Angelus with thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

"The saints and blessed of paradise remind us, pilgrims on earth, that prayer
is above all the daily sustenance that does not let us lose sight of our eternal
destiny," he said.

"For many of them, it was the rosary -- the prayer to which the Year that
ended yesterday was dedicated -- which offered a privileged means for their
daily conversation with the Lord," he added.

"The rosary led them to an ever more profound intimacy with Christ and with
the Holy Virgin," the Holy Father said. Hence, the "rosary can really be a
simple and accessible way for all to sanctity, which is the vocation of every
baptized person."

John Paul II called the Year of the Rosary in October 2002 as he published
the apostolic letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae."

ZE03110208

Rectors Aim to Strengthen Role of Asian Shrines

Plan Associations at National and Continental Levels

MANILA, Philippines, NOV. 2, 2003 (Zenit.org)

Rectors of Asian shrines plan to establish associations at the national and
continental level to give greater emphasis to evangelization through their
religious facilities.

The above was expressed in a statement issued at the end of the first Asian
Meeting of Shrine Rectors, held in Manila from Oct. 21-25.

The meeting, attended by representatives of 51 shrines of 14 Asian nations,
reflected the vitality and attraction of Asian shrines, not only among Catholic
communities, but also among believers of other religions.

"The Shrine: Place of Welcome and Encounter," was the theme of the meeting
organized by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers together with the
Commission on Human Mobility of the Philippine bishops' conference.

For Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, council secretary, "welcome" and
"encounter" are meaningful terms for the shrines because "in welcoming many
people -- including of other religions -- and in being an occasion for
reciprocal exchange of gifts, they are placed in the front line of the
continent's evangelization," he told Vatican Radio.

In their final statement, the rectors expressed their commitment to "explore
the immense possibilities of inculturation and dialogue that arise from
pilgrimages, religious meetings, liturgical celebrations, manifestations of
popular devotion, charitable assistance, and even the very architecture of
churches and shrines."

"We accept the challenge to open wide horizons of dialogue between cultures
and with other religious groups, with the firm hope of attaining the authentic
revelation of Christ," the statement said.

ZE03110204

Pregnant Pause: Spirituality for Expectant Moms

Agnes Penny Pens a Guide to Help With the Joys and Trials

WHITEHALL, Pennsylvania, OCT. 27, 2003 (Zenit.org)

When Agnes Penny was pregnant with her first child and experiencing some trials
of motherhood, she couldn't find any spiritual books to help her embrace her
vocation better.

After she endured months of sickness and feelings of isolation, and was
rewarded with the joy of a child, she began writing to make sense of it all.

Penny continued writing during her second and third pregnancies and has
recently penned a book of her gained wisdom, "Your Labor of Love: A Spiritual
Companion for Expectant Mothers" (TAN).

Penny, who is expecting her fourth child in February, shared with ZENIT the
delights and trials of pregnancy as a Catholic mother living in what John Paul
II has called "the culture of death." ...

Q: What spiritual revelations did you experience while being pregnant and
writing this book?

Penny: Although I began this book right after I had my first baby, I did do a
lot of work on it during my next two pregnancies and it was tremendously helpful
to me. It helped me appreciate my vocation as a mother, particularly during that
very special time when I was expecting and I couldn't see or hold the baby in my
womb -- yet I could love that baby and reflect on the wonderful miracle that was
occurring within me.

Also, I learned to grow closer to Our Lady and to other saints who were
mothers, which is vital to the vocation of motherhood. ...

During my third pregnancy, when I would sit up all night because of
heartburn, I would just smile and talk to Our Lady about the baby, and about the
things I wanted for my unborn child, such as purity, virtue love for the holy
Eucharist. It was so much more peaceful than those restless nights I spent in
the same chair two pregnancies earlier. ...

The director and editors of Mary Page under the
auspices of the International Marian Research Institute do not necessarily
endorse or agree with the events and ideas expressed in this feature. Our sole
purpose is to report on items about Mary gleaned from a myriad of papers
representing the secular press.

JUNKIES are using a church's confessionals to shoot up - and have
splattered blood over a statue of the Virgin Mary.

The drug addicts are even washing their bloody needles in the font at St
Catherine's Church in Dublin.

Priests are being abused when they try to move the thugs from the Meath Street
church which has been described as a "drug den".

Father Iggy O'Donovan said the problem has got so bad that he has to sweep
needles and contaminated swabs from around the shrine. And a cleaner who was
doing her rounds discovered the blood-spattered statue of the Virgin Mary.

Fr O'Donovan said: "That was a new low. She came out and said 'the Virgin is
crying tears of blood'.

"But the statue had been desecrated. I don't know if they did it for a joke or
if the blood squirted up when they were opening their arms.

"The blood running down the face of the Virgin is symptomatic of what we have
come to.

"The other day I tried to get three fellows who had been injecting themselves
out of the church and they turned around and called me 'a w****r'."

The Augustinian priest has been in the parish for almost five years but believes
the drug problem is now worse than ever.

He said: "It makes me laugh when I see people getting worked up about bin
charges. It's nothing compared to the problems we have with drugs and booze.

"The Health Minister wants to bring in a ban on smoking but the real war should
be against drugs.

"I'm generally an optimist but I'm getting worried by what I see around me.

"It's as if nothing in society is sacred any more. This country has become as
decadent as any other western society.
"The law of the jungle rules and community spirit is at an all-time low.

"It is a sign of the times when confession boxes in a church have to be locked
to stop junkies shooting up in them."

Nun on the run [Source: UK Newsquest, 9/26/2003]

A nun carrying a model of the Virgin Mary arrived in Wandsworth
last week as she continues her quest to visit every country on the planet.

Sister Ruth 62 has travelled with the three-foot Madonna through 200 countries
so far and visited the Wandsworth shopping centre last Wednesday to stop and
chat to people about her travels.

Sister Ruth said: "I have had abuse shouted at me in many of the non-Christian
places I have visited but I will continue until I have visited every country in
the world.

"It's nice for me to visit Wandsworth because I have family here and I shall be
visiting Putney and Battersea in the next few days also." The intrepid devotee
who is half English and half Portugese is based at the One in Christ convent in
the Irish town of Cork.

School proud of pilgrimage girls [Source: UK Newsquest,
9/23/2003]

The pupils all aged 16 went to France when they joined the Raphael
Pilgrimage to Lourdes where apparitions of the Virgin Mary are alleged
to have taken place.

They went as helpers to sick pilgrims who went in hope of a miracle cure. The
girls kept the pilgrims company as well as entertaining them with their singing
saxophone and flute playing.

Charlotte Byrne from Droitwich and Lucy Abbs Lucy Phelps and Adele Ashby from
Worcester were chosen to make the trip by their school in Mount Battenhall.

It was the first time pupils from the school had gone. The girls were led by
Sister Mary Joseph who has been making the pilgrimage for 10 years.

Around 30 people from Worcester and Droitwich met up with 140 other pilgrims on
the journey.

During their five-day stay a typical day for the helpers known as hand maids
included getting up at 6am waking the pilgrims making tea making the beds taking
the pilgrims on trips and attending mass before retiring to bed at midnight.

Some of the highlights of the week included joining 10 000 people from around
the world in a candle-lit evening procession though Lourdes and visiting the
Pyrenees.

The pilgrimage is run by a trust called the Cheshire Ryder Foundation.

"It was an amazing experience and extremely moving " said Lucy Abbs.

"I've never done anything like this before and it was nice to have the
opportunity."

Lucy Phelps described the experience as emotional.

"It was sad to see the people so ill but if you can make them happy in some way
that is a good start " she said.

Sister Joseph said the pupils did a magnificent job.

"We were all there for the sick " she said. "These girls are all gifted and
their singing and music lifted the spirits of the pilgrims.

York's most famous daughter was involved in the first three productions in the
Museum Gardens in the 1950s, performing as the Virgin Mary
in 1957 before going on to a glittering career in theatre film and TV. Now she
has told the Press that she feels "very strongly indeed" about the news that the
next major staged production of the Plays may not take place until at least
2010.

"Wherever I have been in the world I have been astonished by the number of
people who have told me that they have seen the Plays and the enthusiasm for the
York Cycle is phenomenal " she wrote.

"It is a wonderful way of bringing visitors to York not only from the British
Isles but from all over the world."

She said she had been associated - "with my entire family" - with the very first
staging in 1951 by E Martin Brown and had appeared in the Plays on the two
following occasions.

"I feel very strongly indeed about the news that they may not be performed again
until 2010.

"I feel passionate that the Mystery Plays should continue in the tradition of
being staged every four years and I totally support your efforts to achieve
this."

Her comments come only a week after the creation of a new York Mystery Plays
Association whose aim is to ensure they are performed again in the Museum
Gardens if possible in 2005.

Former Lord Mayor Keith Wood who will chair a working party to investigate the
feasibility welcomed news that Dame Judi was backing the campaign. "I am
delighted that she is so supportive " he said.

Pope John Paul II is to visit the ancient city of Pompeii in
southern Italy next month to visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary, the Vatican said
on Monday.

The 83-year-old pope, who is badly affected by Parkinson's disease, will travel
to the city by helicopter on October 7, thanks to a specially designed elevator
that will enable him to climb on board the aircraft.

The pope had recently stopped travelling by helicopter because of the difficulty
of clambering on and off.

He is due to leave his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, at
daybreak and fly into Pompeii, near Naples, where he will be driven to the holy
shrine.

The entire visit is expected to last only a few hours, according to church
sources in Pompeii.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church has travelled to Pompeii once before, in
1979. This will be his 143rd trip inside Italy.

GROTTO DESECRATED [Source: The People, 9/14/2003]

LOCALS were horrified when thugs caused an estimated EUR3,000
damage at a grotto in Co Kerry.

Vandals destroyed statues of St Bernadette and the Virgin Mary at a grotto in
Currow.

Faces and hands of the statues were destroyed at the grotto at Dicksgrove Cross.

The poster shows the young Christ lying in a manger in a
traditional nativity scene with the Virgin Mary gazing down. But instead of
traditional swaddling clothes he is clad in the red and white suit of Santa
Claus.

Underneath is the caption "Go on, ask Him for something this Christmas."
Churches in the county are being invited to order the poster and display it in
the run up to Christmas.

It is the latest shock campaign from the Churches Advertising Network, which has
previously shown Jesus as the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

CAN is an independent ecumenical body which produces advertising campaigns to
support churches and encourage people to think about Christianity.

While not an official Church of England scheme, the Diocese of Gloucester has
applauded the campaign.

Spokesman Geoff Crago said: "On the whole the diocese would say such campaigns
are a very good thing because they get people talking.

"There have been individuals who have protested.

"But most people certainly say that God has a sense of humour and it's good to
use a sense of humour." But Father Richard Dwyer, of St Thomas More Roman
Catholic Church, in Princess Elizabeth Way, Hester's Way, said: "My own reaction
would be to crawl up in horror.

"Jesus is the Son of God and God is the source of all. Depicting Jesus as Santa
Claus is not helping to put forward the truth of Jesus Christ." John Smuts, the
minister at Cambray Baptist Church in Cambray Place, Cheltenham, welcomed the
move.

He said: "I think it's excellent. I really like it. It puts side-by-side two
classical Christmas card images. It makes us wonder what Christmas is all about.

"It asks whether Jesus is the man who came to save the world or is it all about
the material side of Christmas where we just ask for more material things." CAN
produces a Christmas and Easter poster each year.

The 2002 campaign showed one of the three kings presenting his gift to baby
Jesus, with the slogan: "At this point, the first King realised he'd left the
price tag on." Spokesman Francis Goodwin said: "There are generations growing up
thinking Christmas is just about trees and presents.

"That is part of the story, but certainly not all of it."

THE MOBILE MEDIA (ESCAPE TO THE ISLANDS) [Source: Business
World (Philippines), 9/29/2003]

The Blessed Virgin Mary of the Catholic
faith goes by many names. A litany of her names - such as Our Lady of the Most
Holy Rosary, Mother of Christ, Lady of the Light - are commonly recited at the
end of a community rosary prayer.

In the Philippines, children are often taught to call her Mama Mary. Many towns
in the provinces have special labels for her. She is the Our Lady of Manaoag in
Manaoag, Pangasinan and the Lady of Good Voyage in Antipolo, Rizal - both images
are believed to be miraculous and have a good number of devoted followers. Naga
City in Bicol has a special one too. And this one is quite interesting. The name
Penafrancia comes from a place called Sierra de Francia. Translated in English,
the words Pena de Francia mean the "Peak of Francia." The
place is not in France, but in Spain. Sierra de Francia is a mountain in the
southwestern part of Salamanca province in Spain.

According to the legend, there was a man named Simon living in France who came
from a religious family. He entered a Franciscan monastery and became a devotee
of the Virgin Mary. One night a voice woke him up saying "Simon, wake up, from
now on you shall be called Simon Vela, go to Pena de Francia, where the sun goes
to sleep and seek the image of the Virgin which shall become a great inspiration
to many."

He consulted his spiritual director and was told to forget it because it was too
incredible. The voice woke him up again on other nights with the same message.
This time he decided to follow the voice. He went towards the west as the voice
instructed him to do. He travelled for five years looking for the image. No one
was able to tell him where Pena de Francia was. He was tempted to give up, but
when he was about to, the voice spoke to him again and said that he should "not
lose hope, a great reward is coming when he finds it.

He decided to go to the University of Salamanca in Spain to find answers from
the professors there who are famous for their knowledge and wisdom.

He reached Salamanca on a busy market day. He overheard two coal vendors
extolling the virtues of their products. One of them remarked that his coal came
from Pena de Francia.

He followed the vendor on his way home. He reached a village called San Martin
de Castanar and there he asked for direction. The village was at the foot of
Sierra de Francia and the people told him where Pena de Francia was.

The night before he went up to dig, the voice came again and told him
to bring companions to help him find the image. He was able to gather five men,
who each had some form of ailment. They found the image at last beneath a
boulder in May 19, 1534. As soon as they saw the image, the ailments of the five
men disappeared. Simon Vela, who was suffering a head injury, was also cured
instantly.

Today, the testimony of the event, signed by the five men, is in the archives of
San Martin de Castanar in Spain. The image became Our Lady of Penafrancia.

It was a story that spread across the globe. The Lady is now the patroness of
the Bicol region.

Fr. Miguel Robles de Covarrubias started the feast of Our Lady of Penafrancia in
Bicol during the 1700s.

The Penafrancia festival is held in her honor each year in Naga City on the
third Saturday of September.

This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute,
Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by
Kris Sommers
, was last modified
Monday, 03/29/2004 15:24:43 EST
by
Michael P. Duricy
. Please send any comments to jroten1@udayton.edu.